A Man Cursed At And Threatened This Woman For Breastfeeding Her Baby

When Connecticut mom Jessie Maher breastfed her month-old daughter at a Target store on Monday, she was confronted by an irate customer who refused to back off. The man didn't like that Maher was feeding her child in public, and began verbally attacking her in the store's cafe.

According to a Facebook post by Maher, the man exclaimed, "Can't you do that somewhere else? That's f**king disgusting. You are nasty." At that point, Maher began recording the incident on her cell phone as he paced around the cafe, demanding a refund and swearing at her. "Because I'm feeding my baby, this man is going crazy and I'm shaking," Maher says during the recording. It's easy to see why she'd be so distressed—the man is seen shouting at her from across the room in a booming voice that would startle anyone, and even calls her a whore at one point.

Luckily, the recording also captured something beautiful: a group of strangers who banded together to defend Maher. "Look at all these wonderful people coming to my defense, thank you so much," Maher is heard saying through tears. "He has no right to be doing what he's doing, you have a baby in your hands," a woman replies in between calling out the man for his behavior. "You shouldn't be ashamed of feeding your baby...if he doesn't like it, he can go.

Soon afterward, Target employees are seen stepping in, and while it's tough to make out much of what they're saying to the man, it's clear that they are making moves to protect Maher, forming a human 'wall' around him so she can carry on nursing. Maher told Connecticut's Fox 61 Newsthat an employee told her, “it’s your right to nurse wherever you want here.”

While the footage is intense and sometimes frightening, it's incredibly important. While moms are often able to nurse without receiving negative comments, this video provides a real-life example of the scary possibilities that exist each time they feed their babies in public. We as a culture can do better than this—and videos like this one spread awareness to help us inch closer to a world that is more accommodating to nursing moms. Watch the video for yourself below (heads up, it includes a lot of cursing.)